1d.) Storming the Castle

The travel to the town, thanks to Dorado's direction, was uneventful. The town, however, looked as if many events had happenned to it: windows were broken, doors were smashed, and the entire place looked like it hadn't been inhabitted in a long time.

Sticking to the shadows and side streets, with one close call with one ghoul, they had made it to a window at the side of the castle...

"Once you're inside, you'll be at the mercy of whatever Yitur has in there... this is the point of no return, folks..."

Iko stepped forward, already determined enough to go forward, regardless of risk or fear...

Salem looked at the town. "Yeah, I can see why no one would return; this place is a dump. You'd think that someone with a castle would have a bit more style..."

Lallium was curious. "How would you change it?"

"Well there'd be minions patrolling the streets, all the empty building would be giant *****-traps, and of course lots of statues of myself."

"...No comment."

"No comment IS a comment."

"..."

"************** also a comment."

"No it's not!"

Shobatsu nodded grimly, and stepped up beside Iko. The fireflies seemed to get excited, swirling faster as they neared the castle. About fifty detached from the one-hundred fifty circling the entire group, now focusing entirely on Dorado. He was the only one injured in the group, and from his way of speaking, he almost seemed the be saying he didn't intend to go any further. If he left, they might be of help.

Carlos looked up at the foreboding heights of the castle. The tall, impenetrable-looking walls almost seemed to be saying 'Don't Even Think About It'. All castles and police stations give off this effect, however, so it wasn't as impressive as it could be.

" Oh come on! Really! A Castle! " Alex whined loudly, probably able to be heard by Iko and company even though he was quite far distance from them. Echo didn't comment, still smiling as she flew towards the group.

She did however notice the castle.

~ Oh goody! Maybe there is a king there, once he hears my godly singing he will gie money and I'll be able to go home! My wings are just too worked to be able to fly halfway around the world! ~

"No point in making this pretty..." Iko said, examining the mirror, tensing his fist as he gathered shadow around his hand. Jumping up to the window's level, he slammed his hand forward against the glass, cracking it with the first blow, a kick offerring the damage necessary to break the window the rest of the way.

Using the inside darkness to sweep the glass to the side, helping Luke up, the pair landed inside, with a sound that suggested the floor was like stone. Within this room were two torches and an open archway, leading out to a hallway, stairs in the center of this hall, to the right.

"Yitur is on top here..." Iko said, sensing around the castle. He moved quickly for these stairs, not wisely staying with the group, which quickly alerted resistance on the first floor...

Opposite the staircase, a wolf with yellow-red fur walked out, snorting fire, having a sword's slash mark acrossed his face. It sniffed, and looked over at the window, sensing multiple intruders.

Salem looked skeptically at the castle. "Hmm... it could use some work but this will do for now. Future Temporary Castle of the Prince of Chaos, here I come!"

Salem dashed after Iko, and Lallium sighed before jogging after him.

"We really need to work on the name..."

Shobatsu had been following closely behind Iko, anticipating his rapid movement. It was wise, too, to try to avoid the guardians of the castle. Everyone else would be wise to keep up.

He was, however, aware enough of his surroundings to notice the wolf's approach. Using the massive light generated from his private army of fireflies, he generated a solid wall of light in the doorway, and held it there, focusing intently as he started up the stairs. Carlos followed close behind.

He would maintain this wall until he got to the top of the stairs, by which time anyone who was intending on following in good will would already be half-way up the stairs and out of harms way. The wall was opaque, so anyone moving through the hallway would go unseen.

The wolf was temporarily halted by the light, held back by Shobatsu's intense bide of power; as predicted, it would do this fire hound little good to keep proceeding.

Almost with a sixth sense about where to go, Iko darted down the next hall, taking a left, then another left up the next stairwell, at a quicker pace than before, Luke beginning to lose stride.

"Hold up... leave me behind, and you're defenseless!" Luke suggested, looking at Iko.

"Pick it up, then!" Iko responded harshly, without slowing down.

At this pace, even with interferences, they would rush straight to Yitur's territory... which would probably be a bad thing...

The pain had begun to subside. Tesla uncurled from the ball she had rolled into. She noted streaks of tears on her face, but made no movement to brush them away or acknowledge them.

"We should hurry," Tesla muttered in a shaky voice.

Erik held a hand out to her, then pulled her up. He had vague misgivings as they approached the castle, then went through the broken window.

Tesla gave a quick glance around the first floor, hurrying for the stairs. Erik crashed into her when she suddenly stopped.

"You shouldn't come any further with me," Tesla said quietly, stopping by the barrier of light. She didn't turn around.

"What?" Erik was incredulous. "What are you talking about? It's safer with you and the group, and we're already here!"

Tesla relented. She wiped her eyes with a hand and nodded. Her expression changed to one of determination as she turned back towards the stairs.

"Iko, slow down! Determined or not, you are still only at your second rank!" Carlos called, thinking similarly to Luke. It would do no good to rush in dramatically only to be defeated by some trap or ambush they hadn't noted when entering.

Shobatsu, however, merely continued on at his quick pace, keeping Iko in sight most times. He was stretching himself to maintain the wall as he increased distance. He was still within seventy-five feet (twenty-five yards) of the wall, so could technically do it, but he was nearing the edge of his limit as he rose and moved farther away... Anyone who wanted to come up without interference would be wise to do so NOW.

He also understood Iko's eagerness for battle, and knew that, with himself along, he would be more than adequately protected from any surprise attack. If it was dark, he could defend himself, and if it was light, Shobatsu could defend him. The fireflies, still emitting new light, would also let him fight if it was dark.

In addition, they had the element of surprise. Setting traps required forewarning of the approaching enemy, and they had entered unnoticed, as far as he knew. Most traps set for enemies in general would usually be outside, where clumsy servants couldn't trip them, so he expected little resistance until confronting Yitur...

... Unless they were spotted by some random sentry in the halls before reaching Yitur's domain.

After a few minutes of following Iko, Shobatsu felt the wall suddenly leave his field of power. The wall would remain for a further twenty seconds from the sheer residual power that had compressed it together before disappearing in a blinding flash of light, which would, of course, be the light rapidly expanding from its compacted form.

~Hmm... Magnus seems to have spotted the intruders...~ Yitur thought to himself, sitting in what would best be called an amphitheatre at the top of the castle, a refurnished and expanded 'attic' that took up much of the castle's room. It was high up, with windows and pillars that cast shadow, as well as torches lining the side of the room, data spilling out of them as the wood burned, in a much more self-cleaning process than falling ash.

Standing up, streching and hobbling, he stowed away a pendant used to sense the goings-on of controlled DaCre... he looked at the door intently. "I could send castle defences, but that wouldn't mean that they would be unharmed... after all, I still want to use them as proper tools..." Yitur chuckled. It seemed that three would be coming to arrive...

---------------------

Meanwhile, without incident of enough reaction time, Iko had already sprang up to the floor below Yitur, going up the last hallway, taking little note of another tamer's orders. Luke followed somewhat behind, more at Carlos' position... bashing through the door, there would be several seconds in which Iko would be unassisted in this battle...

Salem, in his D form at the moment, and Lallium quickly fell far behind the other four. Lallium was panting loduly as he chased after them.

"My god... those guys... are some sort of freaks... What kind of... DaCre player... is athletic enough to run like that? Huh?"

Salem, who didn't seem tired but was still moving more slowly than the rest due to their longer legs, looked back at Lallium. "Maybe you're just out of shape. Time to hit the treadmill."

"Hmph."

The two would reach the area with the light wall just as it was fading...

At the instant the light wall fell, there was a flash; through this flash, they would notice a noise and a small explosion; in front of them was a singe mark, where a powerful fireball had fallen.

Magnus was right behind the pair, prowling forward, teeth brandished and growling... it bounced forward at Salem, letting out a stream of flame at the cat's center while in the air... this first move was simply to set the balance...

Salem sighed. "Another wolf.. I remember our world as being more diverse."

"Water Orb. Puppeteer String."

Salem tossed a ball of water into the firestream to slow it and hopped backwards, a blade-string materializing in his hand.

"So, are you another one of Ick-os little puppies?"

Lallium looked at the wolf. "Well if he's anything near the last one in terms of strength..."

"..Then this will be a cakewalk. Exactly what I was thinking. Your evil genius is showing Lallium."

"Where? Joking, joking."

Salem rolled his eyes. "Come on then doggy, let's make this quick. The REAL DaCre need to have a nice long talk about Castle design..."

Magnus didn't seem to comprehend what Salem was saying in the least. Rather, the red wolf hunched down once more as it landed, tensing its legs, allowing it to quickly stride at the cat. Seeing the weapon, it quickly strafed counterclockwise, sweeping from front to back of Salem with an intense stream of fire, quick-moving and difficult to dodge without leaving oneself vulnerable.

The only thing different about this wolf than other attacking wolves was that there was no hackles to his fur... it was smooth, and pristine. It was not angry or threatened inside: it simply had to fight.

Salem raised the blade string and spun it like a helicopter blade, with it's wind facing towards Magnus.

"Frosty Breath."

Salem breathed into the blade an a spray of ice moved out, easily able to counteract the fire especially with added bonus of the wind in it's favor.

Salem broke breath for a moment to speak. "So you're a one trick doggy? Let's see if I can't teach you some new ones. Sit would be a nice start or maybe "don't fry the future owner of this castle."" Salem resumed icing.

The ice met with the fire, creating a mass of hot steam between the two: a veil from which an attack could not be seen.

What wouldn't be noted, however, was how Magnus was going to advance: through the center of the mist, it began to close range, the claws on all four paws glowing bright-red. It appeared a mere foot away from Salem, from the left side, away from the center of the mist: swiping with the right paw, it would be even more difficult to dodge this feign...

Salem's helicopter pushed the majority of steam away from himself, giving him more visiblity than would be normally expected. But this was barely of importance, as Salem simply swept his blade-string to block the false attack and quickly changed motions to block the feint; with such a versatile weapon it was easy defend a wide range and the blade wound slash across the wolf's paw as it blocked.

"Water Orb."

Salem also fired a ball of water at the wolf, because it wasn't neccesary to stop his attacks to do so and really couldn't have a negative effect.

Drawing back his paw slightly, Magnus met the blade with his nails, which drew with the blade, rather than take damage to the paw. From this range, he, firing at the center of the water ball, fired another powerful fire attack straight at Salem, who would likely be less willing to move with the draw. Being a stream, and not a projectile, the attack would soon bore through the water attack, and straight at Salem.

This DaCre's fighting was lethal, but his appearance horrified... this was a cursed existance...

Salem ducked under the stream by sliding under and slightly to the side, using the blade clanging with the claw as a source of balance with which to swing himself. He noticed Magnus' expression.

"What're ya constipated or something? Always take care of these things before attacking your superiors..."

Lallium looked puzzled. "Wait... doesn't that imply that it's okay to attack your superiors?"

Salem was indignant. "Only if they aren't me."

"..."

"Frosty Breath"

Salem fired icy breath at the wolf's right-frontal leg.

It was a simple matter of redirecting aim: the wolf looked down at Salem's new position as he moved; at this close range, it would be impossible to dodge, and Salem would suffer a massive burn to the side as he did so.

He intended to keep this close-range fire as long as he could... which is why he kept with Salem's position, even costing him the use of his leg. At this point, Salem's entire exposed side and face would be horribly burnt by fire...

While the wolf could of course redirect aim, Salem had not stopped sliding during the entire period of the attack, though sideways more and downward less. Letting out the string as he went he continued to slide out of range of the fire, using a small amount of water via his innate to help keep the floor slideable on and propel himself, and was circling the wolf's legs in the same fashion as a snowspeeder on wheels would an AT-AT. He also continued his spray of ice on the wolf, which would have a harder and harder time getting away the more Salem encircled him with his freezing and his binding string.

Tesla noted an unfamiliar DaCre's data signature that he hadn't noticed earlier. Then she noted the sound of shifting feet on pavement, and finally the dulcet tones of Salem shook her out of her sudden trance.

Erik was off to the side in a corner of the room. Apparently his first instinct had been to hide from the battle. Tesla herself had been at a blind angle to the barrier of light, which probably explained why she hadn't been attacked. She now had a clear side view of Salem and his opponent, a wolf DaCre.

Silently, Tesla held up an arm and began to charge up a Lightning Spear.

~I'm going to regret this.~

The handle and blade of a lance formed in Tesla's hands. Electricity crackled down its ends as she grasped the shaft of the weapon and gave it a hard, almost careless toss at the center of the wolf's face.

"Something tells me this isn't what we're here for," Tesla said loudly, just as the spear would hit.

As Salem would mount his mere second lap, though, the cliche'd plan would fail, due to dry heat aimed at the floor making it impossible for water to inhabit in front of the wolf. In general assumption that the innate would work, Salem would scrape his entire side, and skid to a stop due to the stone friction of the floor. The distraction of pain would be interrupted by a powerful flaming stomp directly on top of Salem.

Salem could maintain a little water by altering it's temperature to a freezing degree with his innate, but had a much less pleasant time of his short skidding plan and soon ground to a mildly irritating halt. As the wolf slammed down Salem let out an electric shock through his wire and into the wolf, which in addition to Teslas blow would likely fry the wolf to a degree that Salem wouldn't have to dodge.

If it seemed that wasn't working he would try to launch a water ball into the wolf's face and use the momentum to pull away, but would likely still be hit by the attack and take some damage.